CSYS desk lamp

The LED light is considered by many as the replacement of the indecent light bulb. LED is a highly energy efficient lighting technology, and has the potential to fundamentally change the future of lighting in the world. Residential LEDs, especially ENERGY STAR rated products, use at least 75% less energy, and last 25 times longer, than incandescent lighting.

However, LED got its own problems: Ugly light color, for one; and shortened life due to their own heat damaging themselves, for another. But now Jake Dyson has devised a new lamp that addresses both those problems. His CSYS desk lamp, which debuted during New York Design Week, has a built-in heat pipe running inside its arm that carries the heat generated by the LEDs away from them. The arm itself acts as a heat sink, releasing the heat into the air. The result is that the attached LEDs will last a whopping 37 years compared to the 20 years it does today.

Up until now, heat-sink technology has been being used primarily in satellite technology, and Dyson is the first to use it in a consumer lighting context. Dyson set out to not only create a lamp for the future in terms of sustainability, but also in terms of practicality. The lamp’s arm is able to move back and forth on three axes, meaning it can go not only up and down like most desk lamps, but also back and forth and around in circles. This means the light can be moved up for a wide, diffuse light, or down to for a task light. Furthermore, the LEDs give off a warm, golden light you might actually want to work in.

But perhaps more than anything else, the CSYS desk lamp is a brilliant example of how design can create a product that can last for 4 decades, and can reduce our own will to consume more. We need to see more of that approach in the coming years.